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The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great
rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see
abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Provi-
dence), I was cutting down some thick branches of trees to
make charcoal; and before I go on I must observe the reason
of my making this charcoal, which was this - I was afraid of
making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and
yet I could not live there without baking my bread, cook-
ing my meat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood here,
as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it became
chark or dry coal: and then putting the fire out, I preserved
the coal to carry home, and perform the other services for
which fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. But this
is by-the-bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, I
perceived that, behind a very thick branch of low brushwood
or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place: I was curi-
ous to look in it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth
of it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient for
me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me: but
I must confess to you that I made more haste out than I did
in, when looking farther into the place, and which was per-
fectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature,
whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled like two
stars; the dim light from the cave’s mouth shining directly
in, and making the reflection. However, after some pause I
recovered myself, and began to call myself a thousand fools,
and to think that he that was afraid to see the devil was not
fit to live twenty years in an island all alone; and that I might
well think there was nothing in this cave that was more